Discrimination based on race and gender and sexual orientation are history, too, for the most part.

Photograph by: Paul Mansfield
, Getty Images

An extraordinary transformation has occurred, or more precisely appeared above the waterline. It is a change so epochal, so profound, you’d think Canadians would be in the streets, cheering. But then, this is Canada: Celebratory back patting is not our cup of tea.

The big news, which will never make a bold headline, is just this: Across this country, from coast to coast to coast, there is now a nearly unanimous view that the old, divisive, angry debates about matters of individual faith and morals are over. And we’re not going back there. Not any time soon, probably not ever.

Discrimination based on race and gender and sexual orientation are history, too, for the most part. There are still racists, homophobes and gender-haters in Canada, of course. And there are aberrations (Afro-centric schools in Toronto, for example). But the shared expectation of equality under the law for all, is now so firmly embedded as to be foundational. This is something interesting, unique — and new.

We actually, finally may be living in a just society, as various past prime ministers dreamt we one day would. Not only that, but we live in a society in which the shared idea of equal rights spans the political spectrum, and also our country’s vast geography.

Too Pollyannaish by half? It sounds it. But consider the facts on the ground.

Last fall, Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak was poised to depose the weary, idea-bereft Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty in a rout — or so the polls suggested. Then Hudak made his campaign about ethnicity — pitting native-born Canadians (mainly of European origin), against immigrants, (mainly of Asian, South Asian or African origin), referring to the latter as “foreigners” and griping about subsidies given to companies who hire them.

The strategy backfired spectacularly, derailing Hudak’s campaign. It was eerily reminiscent of the gaffe made by Hudak’s predecessor, John Tory, in 2007, when he went to the mat for more public funding of separate religious schools. Ontarians turned thumbs down on that for the same reason: It smacked of discrimination.

A week ago in Alberta, voters delivered a similar message. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, leading in the polls, was side-swiped by “bozo outbreaks” among her candidates. In responding to the remarks, one directed at gays and the other racially tinged, Smith failed to forcefully denounce them.

She expected, no doubt, that her repeated, categorical statements that she is pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage and adamantly opposed to any kind of discrimination, would be enough to smooth the waters. It wasn’t. Albertans heard a whiff of something they didn’t like and returned Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservatives with a huge majority.

In Parliament last week, Conservative backbench MP Stephen Woodworth caused a furor with a motion to strike a committee to consider when a human life, for purposes of the Criminal Code, begins. If life is determined to begin before birth, of course, then abortion de facto becomes illegal.

Woodworth’s motion has no chance of success: All four major federal parties are united against him. And this is the truly astonishing thing: Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gordon O’Connor, the Conservative whip, denounced his motion.

“Society has moved on and I don’t believe this proposal should proceed,” O’Connor said. “As well, it is in opposition to our government’s position.”

It is impossible to know whether senior Conservatives would have spoken out as clearly before last Monday’s Alberta surprise, which revealed the temper of their base. It’s also irrelevant. We now have a consensus, a national one, that Canada is a uniformly socially progressive nation and will remain so. (Quebec and British Columbia have always been more progressive than either Ontario or Alberta, as regards social issues.)

Liberals will wish to take credit for this, attributing it to Pierre Trudeau’s baby, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“The dialogue between the courts and Parliament has become a dialogue between courts that enforce the charter, and Parliament that has smaller and smaller numbers of people who are prepared to talk back to the charter,” is how veteran Liberal strategist John Duffy puts it.

Conservatives will point out that it was John Diefenbaker, himself a victim of anti-German racism in his youth, who introduced the Canadian Bill of Rights, precursor to the charter. Progressive values are thus a legacy of both Liberals and Conservatives.

“It’s partly the charter, and it’s partly the maturity of the population,” says veteran Conservative strategist Geoff Norquay. “A broadly based social consensus has emerged on the so-called hot-button issues, which says, we decided that . . . . I recognize you may hold personal views at odds with the majority, but we’re not going back there.”

For anyone who remembers the highly charged debates of the 80s, and 90s, and even those in the first decade of this century, this is truly remarkable.

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